Homilies on John 67.1–68.3

“Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.” The present life is sweet and full of much pleasure, but not for all, only for those who are nailed to it. But if anyone looks up to heaven and sees the good things there, he will quickly despise it and make no account of it. For the beauty of bodies too is admired as long as no other more brilliant appears; but when the better appears, the former is despised. If, then, we too are willing to look at that beauty and gaze on the comeliness of the kingdom there, [we shall quickly be freed from the chains of the present things]. For attachment to present things is a kind of chain. And leading us to this, hear what Christ says: “Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.” What is said seems like a riddle. But it is not; it is full of much wisdom. And how will “whoever loves his life lose it”? He who does its improper desires, who indulges it beyond what is right. That is why someone exhorts, saying, “Do not go after the desires of your soul.” For so you will lose it (for it leads you away from the road that leads to virtue); as, on the contrary, “whoever hates it in this world will save it.” And what is “whoever hates it”? He who does not yield to it when it commands harmful things. And he did not say, “whoever does not yield to it,” but “whoever hates it.” For as we cannot bear even to hear the voice of those we hate, nor gladly look on their face, so we must turn away with vehemence from the soul when it commands things contrary to what pleases God. For since he was about to speak to them of death, of his own death, and foresaw them downcast and sinking, he used an excess, saying, “What do I say? If you do not bear my death nobly? For unless you yourselves die, there will be no gain for you.” And see how he softens the saying. It was very burdensome and heavy for a man who loved his life to hear that he must die. And why do I speak of the old times? When even now we shall find many who gladly endure to learn everything in order to enjoy the present life, and that though they believe about the things to come; who, when they see buildings and works of art and machines, weep, saying, “How much man contrives, and becomes dust!” So great is the desire for the present life. Loosing these chains, then, Christ says, “Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” For that he said this exhorting them and loosening their fear, hear what follows: “Whoever serves me, let him follow me,” speaking of death, and demanding the following that is shown by deeds. For the servant must certainly follow the one he serves. And consider when he speaks to them of this: not when they were persecuted, but when they were confident, when they thought themselves in safety because of the honor and attention of the many; when they could both be roused and hear, “And let him take up his cross and follow me”; that is, “Always be in battle array,” he says, “for dangers, for death, for departure from here.” Then, having said the burdensome things, he sets out the prize too. And what was this? To follow him, and to be where he is; showing that resurrection will succeed death. “For where I am,” he says, “there will my servant be also.” And where is Christ? In heaven. Even before the resurrection, then, let us move there in soul and mind. “If anyone serves me, the Father will love him.” Why did he not say, “I”? Because they did not yet have the fitting opinion about him, but a greater one about the Father. For how would those who did not even know that he must rise have imagined great things about him? That is why he also says to the sons of Zebedee, “It is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father”; and yet he himself is the judge. Here he also presents his genuineness. For the Father will receive them as servants of a genuine son. “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” And yet this is no longer the saying of one urging them to come to death. On the contrary, it is very much so. For so that they might not say, “He, being outside human pains, easily philosophizes about death and exhorts us from a position free of danger,” he shows that, though he is in agony, he nevertheless does not decline it, because of its usefulness. These things belong to the dispensation, not to the Godhead. That is why he says, “Now my soul is troubled” (for if it were not so, what consistency would the saying have, and the words, “Father, save me from this hour”?); and he is so troubled as even to seek release, if it were possible to escape.

These are the infirmities of human nature. “But I do not have anything to say,” he says, “asking for release. ‘For this purpose I have come to this hour.’ Let us not flee death; for I too, though now troubled, do not speak so as to flee; for one must bear what comes. I do not say, ‘Deliver me from this hour,’ but what? ‘Father, glorify your name.’ Though my trouble compels me to say this, I say the opposite: ‘Glorify your name’; that is, lead me now to the cross.” This shows his humanity greatly, and a nature not wishing to die, but clinging to the present life; showing that he was not outside human passions. For as to hunger is not blameworthy, nor to sleep, so neither is it to desire the present life. And Christ had a body pure of sins, but not freed from natural necessities; otherwise it would not have been a body. And by these things he also taught something else. What is this? [That,] if ever we are in a struggle and fear, [we should not shrink from what lies before us]. And by “Father, glorify your name” he shows that he dies for the truth, calling the thing glory to God. And this came about after the cross: the world was going to turn and know the name of God and serve him; and not only the Father’s name, but also the Son’s; but nevertheless he is silent about this. “Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” Where did he glorify it? In what had happened before this. “And I will glorify it again,” after the cross. What then does Christ say? “This voice has come not for my sake, but for yours.” But they thought it was thunder, or that an angel had spoken to him. And how did they think this? Was the voice not clear and distinct? But it quickly flew away from them, since they were duller and carnal and slack. And some caught the sound; others knew that it was an articulate voice, but not what it meant. What then does Christ say? “This voice has come not for my sake, but for yours.” Why did he say this? Opposing what they always said, that he was not from God. For how is one who is glorified by God not from God, when God’s name is glorified through him? For this is why the voice came. That is why he himself says, “This voice has come not for my sake, but for yours”: “not so that I might learn from it something I did not know (for I know all the things of the Father), but for your sake.” For since they said that an angel had spoken to him, or that it had thundered, and did not attend, he says that it came for their sake, so that even in this way they might be led to ask what had been said. But they, being dazed, did not ask even so, though they heard that the matter concerned them. For to one who did not know to what it referred, the voice naturally did not seem distinct. “This voice has come for your sake.” Do you see that the humble things are done for their sake, not as though the Son needed help? “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast down.” What connection has this with “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it”? Much, and very harmonious. For since he said, “I will glorify,” he shows also the manner of the glory. And what is the manner? “He will be cast down,” he says. And what is “the judgment of this world”? As if he were saying, “There will be a trial and a vindication.” How, and in what way? “He killed the first man, finding him liable through sin (‘for through sin death entered’); in me he did not find this. Why then did he spring upon me and hand me over to death? Why did he put it into the soul of Judas to kill me? For do not tell me now that God arranged it; for this belongs not to the devil but to God’s wisdom; for the present let the intention of the evil one be examined.” How then is the world judged in me? As if a court were sitting, it will be said to him, “Granted, you killed all, because you found them liable for sin; why did you kill Christ? Is it not clear that it was unjustly?” So through him the whole world will be vindicated. And so that it may be clearer, let me make it plain by an example. Suppose there is a violent tyrant, involving all who fall into his hands in countless evils. If he engages a king, or the son of a king, and kills him unjustly, his death will be able to avenge the others too. Suppose someone exacting payment from debtors beats them and throws them into prison; then, from the same madness, he leads also one who owes nothing into the same prison. He will pay the penalty also for what he did to the others; for that one will destroy him. So it happened with the Son too. For what the devil did to you he will be required to pay for, because of what he dared against Christ. And that he hints at this, hear what he says: “Now the ruler of this world will be cast down,” through my death. “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself,” that is, the Gentiles too. And so that no one might say, “How will he be cast down, if he prevails even over you?”, he says, “He does not prevail. For how could he prevail over one who draws the others too?” And he does not speak of the resurrection, but of something more than the resurrection: “I will draw all to myself.” For if he had said, “I will rise,” it would not yet have been clear that they would also believe; but by saying that they will believe, both are shown at once, that he will also rise. For if he had remained dead and been a mere man, no one would have believed. “I will draw all to myself.” How then does he say that the Father draws? Because when he draws, the Father draws. And he says, “I will draw,” as of people held by a tyrant and unable of themselves to come, nor to escape his hands, since he holds them fast. Elsewhere he calls this plundering: “No one can plunder the goods of the strong man unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his goods.” He said this to show his forcefulness. What there he called plundering, here he called drawing. Knowing these things, then, let us rouse ourselves; let us glorify God, not by faith only, but also by life; otherwise it would be not glory but blasphemy. For God is not so blasphemed when a Greek is defiled, as when a Christian is corrupt. So I beg you to do everything so that God may be glorified. “For woe,” it says, “to that servant through whom the name of God is blasphemed” (and when there is a “woe,” every punishment and penalty follows at once); but blessed is he through whom the name is glorified. So let us not be as in darkness, but let us flee all sins, especially those that pass over into common harm, since it is especially by these that God is blasphemed. For what pardon shall we have when, commanded to give to others, we plunder what belongs to others? What hope of salvation shall we have? If you did not feed the hungry, you are punished; but if you even stripped one who was clothed, what pardon will you find? We shall not cease saying these things continually. For perhaps those who did not hear today will hear tomorrow, and those who do not attend tomorrow will be persuaded the day after. And if some remain disobedient, at least the judgment will hold us free of blame; for we have fulfilled our part. May it be that neither we are put to shame at what is said, nor you hide your faces, but that all may be able to stand with boldness before the judgment seat of Christ, so that we too may be able to boast of you and receive some consolation for our evils in your good repute, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages. Amen.

“The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’” Error is easily detected and weak, even if it is daubed outside with countless colors. And as those who [try by plastering to] repair what is rotten [cannot make it sound], so too liars are easily refuted; which is what the Jews suffered here too. For when Christ had said to them, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself,” they say, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how do you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So they knew that the Christ is immortal and has a life without end. So they too knew what he was saying. For in many places in the Scriptures the passion and the resurrection are set together. Isaiah, for one, sets them together, saying, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,” and all the rest. And David, in the second psalm and in many other places, joins both together. And the patriarch, having said, “He lay down and slept like a lion,” added, “and like a lion’s whelp; who will rouse him?”, showing at once both the passion and the resurrection. But these men, thinking to silence him and to show from this that he was not the Christ, confess that the Christ remains forever. And see how maliciously. For they did not say, “We have heard that the Christ suffers nothing and is not crucified,” but “that he remains forever”; and yet not even what was said was contrary. For the passion was no hindrance to the immortality. From this it is clear that they understood many of the ambiguous things, and acted maliciously on purpose. For since he had earlier spoken of death, hearing “lifted up” here, they suspected this. Then they say, “Who is this Son of Man?” And this too maliciously: “Do not think,” they say, “that we say this about you, and say that we oppose you from hatred. See, we do not know of whom you speak, and yet we give our opinion.” What then does Christ do? Silencing them, and showing that the passion is no hindrance to his remaining forever, he says, “The light is with you for a little while longer,” showing that his death is a departure. For the light of the sun too is not destroyed, but, having withdrawn a little, appears again. “Walk while you have the light.” What time does he mean here? The whole present life, or the time before the cross? I think both. For because of his ineffable love for humankind many believed even after the cross. And he says this urging them to faith, as he had done earlier too, saying, “I am with you a little while longer.” “The one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” How much, at any rate, the Jews do now, and do not know what they do! But walking as in darkness, they think they are going on the right road, but they walk the opposite way, keeping Sabbaths, observing the law, and food regulations; and they do not know where they are walking. That is why he said, “Walk in the light, that you may become sons of light,” that is, my sons. And yet in the prologue the evangelist says, “who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God,” that is, of the Father; but here he himself is said to beget them, so that you may learn that the working of the Father and of the Son is one. “When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them.” Why does he hide now? For they did not take up stones against him, nor blaspheme anything like before. Why then did he hide? Entering into their hearts, he saw their anger growing savage, even if they said nothing; he knew it was seething and murderous, and did not wait for it to come to action, but hides himself, soothing their envy. See, at any rate, how the evangelist hinted at it. For at once he added, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him.” What so many? Those which the evangelist passed over. And this is clear from what follows too. For having withdrawn and given way, and come back again, he speaks to them mildly, saying, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.” For see what he does. He begins from humble and restrained things, and takes refuge in the Father; then he leads the discourse up again. And when he sees them growing savage, he withdraws, and again comes back, and again begins from humble things. And where did he do this? Where did he not? See, at any rate, what he says at the beginning: “As I hear, I judge”; then more loftily, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will”; again, “I do not judge you; [there is one who] judges.” Then he withdraws again; then, coming to Galilee, he says, “Do not labor for the food that perishes.” And having said great things about himself, that he has come down from heaven, that he gives eternal life, he withdraws again. And coming again at the feast of Tabernacles, he does this same thing.

And one might see him continually varying his teaching in this way, by presence and absence, by humble and lofty words; which he did here too. “Though he had done so many signs before them,” it says, “they did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” And again, “They could not believe,” it says, “because Isaiah said, ‘You will hear with your ears and not understand.’ Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory and spoke of him.” See again “that” and “said” indicating not cause but consequence. For it was not because Isaiah said it that they did not believe; but because they were not going to believe, therefore Isaiah said it. Why then does the evangelist not put it so, but says that the unbelief comes from the prophecy, not the prophecy from the unbelief; and going on, puts this very thing more strongly, saying, “For this reason they could not believe, because Isaiah said”? From this he wishes to establish by many proofs the truthfulness of Scripture, and that what it prophesied turned out not otherwise but as it said. For so that no one might say, “And why did Christ come? Did he not know that they were not going to heed him?”, he brings in the prophets, who knew this. But he came so that they might have no excuse for their sin. For what the prophet foretold he foretold as certainly going to happen. For if it were not certainly going to happen, he would not have foretold it; and it was certainly going to happen, because they were incurable. And if “they could not” is put, it is put for “they would not.” And do not marvel. For elsewhere too he says, “Let him who is able to receive it, receive it.” So Scripture often calls the will “power.” And again, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me.” And one may see this kept in common usage too, as when someone says, “I cannot love so-and-so,” calling the vehemence of the will “power”; and again, “So-and-so cannot become good.” And what does the prophet say? “[If the Ethiopian can change] his skin, and the leopard its spots, then this people too will be able to do good, having learned evil.” He does not say that the practice of virtue is impossible for them, but that because they do not wish it, therefore they cannot. And what the evangelist says is this: that it was impossible for the prophet to lie. Yet it was not for this reason impossible for them to believe. For even if they had believed, he could have remained truthful; for he would not have foretold these things if they were going to believe. “Why then,” someone says, “did he not say so?” Because Scripture has certain idioms of this kind, and one must give way to its laws. “Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory.” Whose? The Father’s. How then does John say it of the Son, and Paul of the Spirit? Not confounding the hypostases, but showing that the dignity is one. For the things of the Father are the Son’s, and the things of the Son are the Father’s. And yet God spoke many things through angels, and no one says, “as the angel said,” but what? “God said.” For the things spoken by God through angels would be God’s; but the things of God are no longer the angels’. But here he says the words are the Spirit’s. “And he spoke of him.” What did he speak? “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up,” and the rest. By “glory,” then, he means here that vision: the smoke, the hearing of ineffable mysteries, the sight of the seraphim, the lightning leaping from the throne, on which those powers could not look. “And he spoke of him.” What did he speak? That he heard a voice saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go?” And I said, “Here I am; send me.” And he said, “You will hear with your ears and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart.” See again another question; but it is none if we attend rightly. For as the sun strikes the eyes of the weak, not by its own nature, so it happens with those who do not attend to the words of God. So too in the case of Pharaoh he is said to have hardened his heart; so it happens with those who contend against the words of God. And this too is an idiom of Scripture, like “He gave them up to a debased mind,” and “He assigned them to the nations,” that is, he permitted, he let them be. For it does not here bring him in as acting, but shows these things happening from the wickedness of others. For when we are abandoned by God, [and given up,] we suffer countless terrible things. […] the hearer. […] For that he not only does not hand us over, but does not even abandon us unless we wish it, hear what he says: “Do not your sins stand between me and you?” And again, “Those who remove themselves far from you will perish.” And Hosea says, “You have forgotten the law of your God; I too will forget you.” And he himself in the Gospels: “How often I wished to gather your children, and you would not!” And Isaiah again: “I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to answer.” He says these things to show that we begin the abandonment and become the causes of our destruction. For God not only does not wish to abandon or punish, but even when he punishes, he does it unwillingly. “For I do not desire the death of the sinner,” he says, “so much as that he should turn and live.” And Christ weeps even over the overthrow of Jerusalem, as we too do over friends.

Knowing these things, then, let us do everything so as not to fall away from God, but let us hold fast to care for the soul and to love for one another, and let us not tear our members apart (for this belongs to madmen and those out of their minds); but the worse the state in which we see them, the more let us care for them. For in bodies too we often see many who have obstinate and incurable diseases, and we do not cease applying remedies. For what is worse than gout? What than gout of the hands? Do we then cut off the limbs? By no means; but we do everything to enjoy some relief, since we cannot do away with the evil. Let us do this with our brothers too; and even if they are incurably sick, let us persist in caring for them, and bear one another’s burdens. For so we shall fulfill the law of Christ, and attain the promised good things, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.